


Need a Lift?

by Cherubin0



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Human GLaDOS, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2018-04-02 05:48:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4048522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherubin0/pseuds/Cherubin0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>GLaDOS and Chell get stuck in an elevator. Hijinks ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Watch where you’re going!”

The tall, slender woman with snow-white hair hissed as the scatterbrained lab boy collided with her, causing her to drop her stack of papers all over the floor.

“Oh, Miss Gladys! Very sorry, truly, didn’t see you at all!” the boy fixed his skewed glasses hurriedly, bending to start picking up the mess of reports. “I musta been in another _world_ or somethin’. I tell ya, I’m just so damn clumsy…” when he heard no jovial reply from the woman he’d crashed into, the lab boy slowly lifted his head until he was on the receiving end of the most menacing death stare he’d ever had the displeasure of experiencing. The woman’s brilliantly amber eyes were almost smoking with fury.

Wheatley swallowed. “R-Right. I’ll just—I’ll just be going.” Gingerly he set the bedraggled collection of papers on the floor in front of her, backed away very slowly, and then turned and sprinted down the hallway as quickly as he could manage.

Once he’d turned the corner and disappeared, Gladys finally broke her stare and bent to pick up the remaining papers, grumbling angrily to herself all the while. With so many scientific and monetary setbacks, as well as the constant catastrophes ravaging the planet’s surface, fewer and fewer people had been coming in to apply for positions at Aperture. Recently, the situation had gotten so dire that they’d been forced to hire anyone who walked through the door. That particular lab boy— _Wheatley,_ Gladys seethed under her breath—had been one of the particularly dire consequences of their current predicament.

Finally having gathered all of her papers—albeit in a jumbled mess that would no doubt take her _hours_ to organize again—she made a mental note to have the higher-ups in the lab give Wheatley the brunt of the day’s janitorial duties. Again.

Her heels _clack clack clacked_ on the linoleum floor as she stormed to the elevator and jammed her finger into the button. She barely even noticed the elevator’s other occupant as the doors slid shut behind her. Leaning back against the cool steel wall, she began leafing through her armful of reports to begin the process of sorting them again.

 _That mindless little ignoramus… I_ told _those fools we couldn’t afford to hire that moron—_

Suddenly, everything went incredibly dark. The elevator came to a juddering stop, and Gladys lost her balance on her very high heels and had to let go of her stack of reports in order to grab the handrail, making them spill all over the floor _again._

Two muffled _booms_ rang out from high above them, likely on the facility’s surface. The elevator trembled with each impact; the other woman in the elevator threw out an arm to steady a tottering Gladys. After another moment of tense waiting, the shuddering came to a stop.

In the inky darkness, Gladys’s heart was beating rapidly. Panic rose in her chest as she fought down the wave of terror coursing through her. She’d never been very fond of tight spaces, or of darkness, but hell if she was going to let her insecurities get the better of her in front of a stranger. Inhaling deeply to clear her mind and replacing her mask of indignation, she shrugged off the other woman’s hand and felt her way to the elevator door.

“You have _got_ to be kidding me,” she grumbled. “Today of _all_ days, I swear…“ She brought her balled fist down hard on the elevator door. “Hey! There are people trapped in here! Get us out _this instant!”_

When there was no reply, she banged on the door again out of frustration. “Great. We must be between floors. Just _perfect.”_ She gave the door a swift kick, and grimaced inwardly when her toes jammed into the front of her pointed heels.

The dim emergency lights finally flickered on, and Gladys groaned at the sight of the mess of papers on the floor. “Fucking _hell,_ why does this keep happening to me?” she got down on her knees, wincing at the thought of her incredibly expensive black pencil skirt being ruined by the filthy elevator floor. “You there, make yourself usefu—“

She glanced up and stopped dead in her tracks as she made eye contact with the other woman. Her pulse quickened even as her heart seemed to sink in her chest, and a flood of memories that were most certainly _not_ welcome in her head suddenly sprang to the front of her mind.

“Oh. It’s _you._ ”

 

* * *

_"Gladys! There you are. Got yer list of new test subjects right here, ma'am.” Wheatley’s eyes glowed beneath his shaggy brown bangs as he shoved the clipboard into Gladys’s sternum. Gladys snatched it away from the overeager lab boy and began to turn away._

_“It’s a good batch today, Miss Gladys. Lots of good ones. Should last you a bit longer than the last ones. I mean, I say_ should _, but ah—you always find a way to, uh, y’know.” He passed his index finger across his throat and made a gargling sound._

_“Are you quite finished?” Gladys asked, looking down her spectacles at the much shorter boy. He shuffled his feet nervously._

_“Um, yeah, almost, it’s just that I, um, picked the last one on the list ‘specially for you. Tenacity rating’s off the charts. Thought she might be able to stand up to yer really hard tests. Y’know, the ones everyone else dies in.”_

_When Gladys didn’t respond, Wheatley excused himself rather abashedly and hurried off to clean the bathrooms, which had been his punishment for mucking up a whole slew of experimental agents in the lab the day before. Gladys took no notice of his absence and scanned the list of test subjects on the clipboard. Sure enough, the last one on the list had a tenacity rating higher than any she’d ever seen before._ Well, _she thought._ This should be fairly interesting.

_The remainder of the day was spent navigating the test subjects through her specially designed testing chambers. She was testing the ability of the average human to perform portal-based puzzle and problem solving with the use of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. So far, the average human was proving to be completely incompetent._

_She’d gone through the list of test subjects in order from the top—the first had been mildly successful, making it four chambers in before a misplaced portal caused an active turret to land right in front of him. The next two had barely made it through the initiation chamber, proving to be particularly inept at managing 3D maneuvers at high speed. They met their ends splattered all over the test chamber walls. The next one dropped an Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube on his head and caved in his own skull. On and on they went, one violent end after another, and Gladys was getting more and more bored by the minute._

_None of this carnage fazed her in the slightest. Sure, she’d been a little disturbed by the frequent test subject deaths when she’d first started working at Aperture all those years ago, but she and the other scientists had become completely desensitized to it by now. Other scientists would come into her little booth from time to time and make bets on how long each subject was going to last._

_Gladys pushed her snowy white hair—which was beginning to turn brown at the roots again, she’d need to re-dye it soon—behind her ears and let out a sigh of indignation as she reached the last subject on the list. With test subject applicants becoming increasingly rare, Gladys was on the end of her rope. If she didn’t have enough evidence that ordinary humans could handle something as expensive as the ASHPD, her project would be canceled. Years of good science wasted. She couldn’t have that._

_Time to see what this particularly tenacious test subject could do. Gladys didn’t want to get her hopes up, but felt a tentative whisper of hope flutter through her chest as she called the last name on the list. Chell. No last name, just Chell. Odd, but Gladys didn’t particularly care for the personal details of her subjects. Not when they were likely to die in ten minutes or less anyway._

_The subject walked into the first chamber, and suddenly Gladys couldn’t breathe._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elevator ChellDOS! I'm sure everyone knows how this one's gonna end. Hopefully it'll be at least a little bit interesting though! It started as a oneshot, but kinda developed into something more, so I'm breaking it up into short chapters. It'll be an M rating eventually. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

_It must have been something in the way she held herself that struck Gladys so deeply. The scientist found herself fixated on the woman in front of her, unable to tear her eyes away from the screen. Far from the cowering nervousness displayed by the other test subjects, Chell stood with her shoulders back and her head held high, as if the entire world—or at least the entire test chamber—belonged to her and her alone._

_Something twinged in the pit of Gladys’s stomach, down where her jet black stockings met between her thighs. Even through a camera lens, Gladys could see Chell’s stormy gray eyes sparkling with determination._

_She had to be the most beautiful person Gladys had ever seen. And since Gladys found most other humans intolerably repulsive, that was saying something indeed._

_Gladys suddenly remembered she’d been staring in silence at the screen for far longer than she’d intended. Remembering to breathe, she cleared her throat before turning on the intercom. “Please proceed to the platform and collect the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, Chell.”_

_Chell glanced up at the camera in a moment’s confusion, and Gladys inwardly kicked herself. Calling the test subjects by name was not part of the testing protocol._

_Even the way Chell moved to the platform made Gladys’s breath hitch. Where other test subjects timidly approached the foreign machine and were invariably surprised by the device’s considerable weight, Chell marched right up to the podium and easily swung the ASHPD into her arms, testing its sightlines and turning it over into her hands._

_She looked so natural with the ASHPD in her arms, like it had belonged to her for years._

_Gladys cleared her throat again. “Proceed to test chamber one.”_

* * *

 

For a very long and very tense moment, neither woman dared to breathe. Gladys, still on her knees, felt her heart hammering away in her chest as she fixed Chell with her very best glare. Chell responded only by leaning back against the elevator wall, eyes still locked with the scientist’s.

Though she was trying her best to hide it, Gladys’s breathing was getting haggard. The shock of the elevator’s sudden stop and her intense dislike of small spaces, combined with the realization that the stranger in the elevator was less of a stranger than she would have liked, had sent Gladys’s pulse skyrocketing.

Of all of the Aperture employees to be stuck in an elevator with, it had to be her. Of course it did.

Chell must have been able to hear the scientist wheezing, and tentatively reached out a hand to Gladys’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Gladys jerked away from Chell’s touch, tottering to her feet on unsteady heels and reeling back against the wall.

“Don’t,” Gladys squeaked in a strained voice. “Don’t touch me. I don’t need your help.” Chell raised her arms defensively, moving back to her own corner of the elevator. The test subject began to move her hands along the wall in the dim light, presumably looking for some kind of hatch or removable panel through which to escape.

“Don’t bother. I practically invented these elevators,” Gladys wheezed. “Escape hatches were deemed unnecessary. Lack of funding.” Chell barely seemed to register Gladys’s comment, continuing her search in silence. Another _boom_ echoed through the facility, causing the elevator to rattle again. Gladys gasped and wobbled on her heels until the shaking stopped. This time, Chell didn’t reach out to steady her.

Still hanging onto the handrails for dear life, Gladys tried to calm herself down by drawing in deep, cleansing breaths as smoothly as she could manage. _In for three, out for seven. In for three, out for seven. In for three, out for—oh, for the love of—_

“Would you get down from there? I’m telling you, you’re not going to find anything. You’re just wasting oxygen.” Chell had climbed up onto the handrail, straddling one corner of the elevator in an attempt to feel her way across the ceiling. With an indignant huff she hopped down, shaking the elevator slightly with her… _generousness_ as she hit the ground.

With her heart now beating a tempo that was marginally more _andante_ than it was _presto vivace_ , Gladys eyed the dusty elevator floor with no small degree of uncertainty before sighing and bending to sit with her back against the cool metal wall. At this rate, she was going to need a new skirt—after this debacle, her current one would be completely ruined. _Might as well incinerate it,_ she thought. _The lab coat, too—this one has to be at least a week old._ Practically ancient by Gladys’s standards.

Chell looked at her quizzically from where she sat against the opposite wall. Gladys paid her no mind and began throwing her papers back into a rough heap. If she was going to be stuck in an elevator for who knows how long, she could at least try to get some work done while she was at it.

Far above them rang the sound of several smaller impacts. The two women glanced up towards the ceiling, and the noises slowly died away. Chell looked at Gladys again, her eyes questioning as she pointed upwards.

“Must be another invasion attempt. I wonder who it is this time. Aliens? Black Mesa? Pubescent tractor-driving hooligans?”

Chell smirked, and Gladys let her eyes linger on the test subject for a moment too long; Chell looked away and rubbed the back of her neck, drawing her knees into her chest and making a point of studying her bright orange Aperture jumpsuit leggings.

Gladys felt he heat rising in her cheeks and turned her attention back to her reports. She couldn’t let her _feelings_ get the better of her. Not after everything that had happened between them.

* * *

 

_For one of the first times in her life, Gladys was speechless._

_Not only had the tenacious test subject made it to the last chamber in Gladys’s lineup, but she’d done it without a single slip-up. Chell had expertly weaved her way through every trap, ambush, and pitfall that had felled so many unfortunate test subjects before her._

_The damn girl didn’t even look winded._

_Other scientists had gathered in the observation booth; six or seven of the white-coated braniacs huddled around the small monitor, tittering excitedly to one another and generally being a nuisance to Gladys, who was struggling to keep up with Chell’s progress while making notes in her file and simultaneously directing the test subject through one chamber after another._

_She shushed the scientists around her and hit the intercom. “This is the final chamber. Proceed to the door on the platform above you.”_

_Chell stood in the entrance to the chamber, taking in her surroundings with what seemed like lazy nonchalance. After a moment’s strategizing, she flew into action, sprinting across the room in front of a line of active turrets and diving behind a pillar for protection. Placing a portal on the ceiling and one on the floor below her, she gathered speed by falling continuously until she placed another portal on the floor near the highest platform; when she soared vertically through that portal, all she had to do was step deftly onto the platform as if it were nothing._

_The scientists in the room burst into an uproar, cheering and clapping one another on the shoulder and jostling Gladys in her chair. All the while, Gladys was shell-shocked into utter silence. That last chamber had been her most dangerous and complicated, and Chell had completed it as if it were child’s play. She found herself in a weird state of being simultaneously amazed and offended; on the one hand, she’d finally proven that humans—some of them, at least—were able to handle the ASHPD in practical situations; on the other hand, she’d spent a lot of time on those chambers and how_ dare _Chell treat them as if they were little more than a walk in the park?_

_One of the scientists prodded Gladys, and the physical contact jerked her out of her trance. “Go on, she’s waiting!” the scientist prompted her._

_Gladys ran a hand through her snowy hair, suddenly unable to think rationally. It had been so long since she’d ever had hope for a test subject making it through her test chambers that she’d forgotten what she’d planned to say in the event of success. And Chell had moved so rapidly through the chambers that she hadn’t had time to think anything up._

_The scientists hushed each other as Gladys’s finger hovered over the intercom button._

_“Well done, test subject. This completes today’s test. Please place the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device on the stand in front of you and proceed to the elevator.”_

_Chell did as instructed, and just like that, she disappeared into the elevator._

_Gladys stood and gathered her things as the other scientists left the booth. She’d need to head to the front desk to personally debrief Chell on the test results, but she didn’t know if she was ready to meet the test subject face-to-face. That warm sensation in her stomach hadn’t gone away the entire time they’d been testing._

_It was so unlike her._

_Tucking a pen into her breast pocket and clutching her clipboard close to her body, she exited the booth and locked the door behind her. Then, with a swish of her pearly white lab coat, she made her way down to the front desk._

_The gaggle of excited scientists who had formed a clump outside the debriefing room cleared a path for Gladys as she approached. A medical officer who had been examining Chell after her ordeal (if you could even call it an ordeal) exited the small room and stopped Gladys before she could go in._

_“Well?” Gladys asked._

_The medic shook his head in disbelief. “Aside from the muteness, she’s completely sound in mind and body. I don’t know how she did it, but she made it through every chamber without so much as a scratch or a bruise. I think you’ve found yourself a real keeper, Ms. Gladys.”_

_Gladys cleared her throat, fighting down the wave of_ feelings _that seemed to bring heat to her cheeks and face. “Noted, Doctor. I’ll start the debriefing now, if you’d kindly get out of the way.”_

_The medic, used to her snippish comments, stepped aside and ushered her into the tiny room. Chell sat with her legs idly propped up on the table, looking up when she heard the door open._

_As the scientist and the test subject locked eyes with each other for the first time, an excited blush rose in Chell’s cheeks that made Gladys’s heart swim in her chest._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it's been so long! I know how frustrating it is when people leave stuff unfinished, so here's the next chapter in ChellDOS elevator antics. Thanks so much for reading! Hopefully the next chapter won't take six months like this one did (yikes)!


	3. Chapter 3

_Gladys nearly choked on her dark roast when she heard the news. Chell, who’d been returning to Aperture frequently for test after test ever since passing Gladys’s first slew of chambers, had been hired by Aperture as a full-time test subject._

_That sort of thing was completely unheard of; test subjects tended to be viewed by Aperture scientists and staff as second-class citizens, worth little more than the rats and monkeys the facility also tested on. Not only that, but test subjects who survived testing of any sort—portal-related or no—were usually too traumatized to even think about setting foot in the facility again. Normally, they’d just take their sixty dollars and hightail it back to the city. Sure, a few of the unfortunate sods found themselves back in Aperture for a second round of testing once their initial sixty bucks had run out, but even that was a rare occurrence._

_And yet here was Chell, returning every day with that lazy smirk and that mischievous gleam in her silver eyes._

_Aperture’s higher-ups had been so impressed by Chell’s performance with the ASHPD that she’d been assigned to Gladys permanently. In addition, Gladys had received a rather outrageous amount of funding for her portal-based projects, as well as the clearances she needed to start getting some real work done._

_And if Gladys had the added bonus of being able to observe Chell doing her thing day after day, well, that was just a little personal reward for good science._

_Needless to say, every employee within Aperture had an opinion to share on the subject._

_“It’s absurd,” the older female lab technician grumbled as she and Gladys walked towards the testing wing of the facility. “Testing is about control. It’s about science. She’s not an everyman, she’s not your average Joe. She’s an outlier! This_ employee _is going to be nothing but trouble, I’m telling you.” She spat out the word as if it were poison, and Gladys felt her blood boil._

_Gladys fixed the technician with a glare. “If you’re so concerned with making sure that only ‘average Joes’ take my tests, why don’t you trade places with her?”_

_The technician gawked. “How dare—“_

_“I’m sure you’ll love what I’ve got on the docket today,” Gladys interrupted, flipping through her notes. “Ah, yes. I’m going to be dropping Chell from five stories to see if our new foot-based armor technology can keep her from becoming a fine red paste on the floor. Sounds perfect for a woman of science like you, doesn’t it, Susan?”_

_When Susan spoke, her words were percussively enunciated and thick with resentment. “You seem quite fond of your little plaything, Gladys.”_

_Susan, whose temper was obviously escalating rapidly, was several years Gladys’s senior at Aperture. It would have been wise to let the older woman have the last word. It would have been wise to apologize, to take back her petty insults and snarky comments. It would have been wise for Gladys to do any number of things in that instant._

_But Gladys was smart, not wise._

_“I’d just hate to see years of good science go to waste, Susan. Wouldn’t want my experiments to end up like yours.”_

_Susan turned red as a beet; her eyes bulged, and an ugly vein pulsed in her forehead. She stormed off in the other direction with a loud huff. Feeling rather proud of herself, Gladys smirked and continued down the long hallway to where the day’s work awaited her._

* * *

 

“Stop picking that. It’ll never heal.”

Chell looked up from picking at the ugly scab on her elbow and exhaled loudly, letting her head drop into her hands. There was no telling how long they’d been down there already, but from the sounds of it the situation on the surface wasn’t going well enough to expect a rescue anytime soon.

Gladys had long since finished sorting her documents, and was now passing the time by organizing and reorganizing the papers alphabetically, numerically, chronologically, and psychologically. Chell had discarded the orange sweater of her jumpsuit, as well as her long fall boots. Gladys had protested at the way she’d carelessly tossed the Aperture footwear aside as if they were gym shoes, but she figured that if they could keep Chell alive after falling at a speed close to terminal velocity, they’d be fine resting on the grungy elevator floor.

Gladys studied two her of her reports carefully, eventually deciding that Mr. Wu was, in fact, just slightly less psychologically stable than Ms. Francis. She placed his report underneath hers in the new stack she was making and was suddenly very aware that Chell had been watching her for some time.

Gladys turned her face up to make eye contact with the test subject, who, unsurprisingly, did not look away. It seemed as though Chell didn’t have a bashful bone in her body. Chell leaned against the elevator wall with one knee pulled up to her chest and her other leg extended out in front of her. Her hair was just beginning to cling to her forehead from the sweat that had beaded as a result of the body heat of both of the elevator’s occupants.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you that it’s impolite to stare?” Gladys leered. “Oh, wait, my mistake. I must have forgotten about your mother’s premature departure from your childhood.”

Chell frowned, but kept her eyes on Gladys, who felt oddly exposed under her piercing gaze. Gladys felt a tiny twinge of guilt for the jab at Chell’s parentage, but kept her uncaring mask on out of habit as she shifted her eyes back to her work. In her peripheral vision, she saw Chell lift her right hand from where it rested atop her knee. This made Gladys freeze, her heart rising into her throat.

W-H-A-T H-A-P-P-E-N-E-D, Chell signed, one letter at a time.

 

* * *

 

_The first time, it was just a whisper of a touch._

_As usual, Gladys and Chell had met in the briefing room following the day’s cycle of tests. Today’s chambers had involved the combined use of portals and the Aperture Science Thermal Discouragement Beam, which had given Chell a very mild case of singed eyebrows._

_The two women had adopted a regular schedule; after the day’s round of (invariably successful) tests had been completed, Chell would be whisked away to the debriefing room, receive an (invariably perfect) bill of health from the medical technician, and then be greeted by an (invariably aroused) Gladys. Gladys would go through the humdrum of scientific methods and theories and hypotheses while an obviously disinterested Chell usually spent the time lounging in her chair with her legs propped up on the desk or rolling a pencil back and forth across the table. As the meeting ended, Chell would gather her things (which usually only consisted of a change of clean clothes) and clock out for the day._

_Only this time, as she left, Chell slowly and deliberately ran her fingers along the bare skin of Gladys’s arm where it rested on the mahogany tabletop._

_Gladys inhaled sharply as the door swung closed behind her, the shock of Chell’s touch sending a physical shudder up her spine. Her blood went to ice, though Chell’s fingertips had seemingly left trails of fire along her skin. Gladys could feel her heart pounding in her ears, and it was another long minute before she could slow her breathing enough to gather her papers and leave the room._

_The first time, it was just a whisper of a touch._

_The second time, it was definitely on purpose._

_And the third time, well._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurk blah apologies for taking so long yadda yadda you've heard it all before here's the next chapter. And thanks for all of the loving comments and kudos, they're so lovely ack <3


	4. Chapter 4

The tension in the air was tangible, Chell’s right index finger still extended upwards in the sign for the letter ‘D’. A single bead of sweat ambled lazily down Chell’s temple. _What happened?_

Gladys dropped her head, unable to meet the test subject’s eyes. _What happened?_ She heard her blood boiling in her ears, could feel every thud of her racing heart. _You happened. You happened, and you ruined me._

Suddenly she was surging forward, the skin of her bare knees sliding painfully on the linoleum floor as her skirt was hitched up by the sudden movement. Her fist came down hard on the metal elevator wall two inches from Chell’s left ear, their noses a hair’s breadth from each other.

Chell didn’t flinch.

“I’ll tell you what _happened,"_   Gladys snarled, her face so close to Chell’s that her amber eyes had to flick back and forth between Chell’s left and right pupils. “You distracted me. I lost everything because of you. You were _bad science._ ” She spat the words out, feeling a rush of new devastation and heartbreak wash over her as she put into the words the anguish that had consumed her over the past months.

Silence flooded the elevator as the two women stared at each other, hot breaths mingling in the torrid elevator air. Gladys’s gaze flickered down to Chell’s lips.

Chell noticed.

Gladys slammed her fist against the wall again in frustration and began to move backwards and away from Chell; this time, Chell moved like lightning, capturing Gladys’s right wrist in her hand as it moved past Chell’s head, holding it tight as Gladys landed awkwardly on her rear end. Her steely gaze locked with Gladys's, Chell pressed her right hand into the scientist's, once more signing letters but this time pushing each one into the flesh of Gladys’s palm.

T-E-L-L M-E W-H-A-T H-A-P-P-E-N-E-D.

 

* * *

 

_Gladys was tired. Everyone was, with the Aperture facility on day three of an ongoing lockdown in the face of a Black Mesa invasion attempt. The facility was equipped with very basic living accommodations that housed about twenty employees to a room, but being in such quarters with so many people for such a long time had everyone on edge. Tempers flared frequently as the usually pampered and often emotionally volatile scientists were forced to forgo their lavish city apartments for the basic cots and even more basic hygienic amenities of the Aperture Science Emergency Employee Housing Facilities._

_For Gladys, there were other, additional challenges, challenges of the… personal sort._

_She had grown used to a sort of regimen in order to maintain her stoic visage in the face of her invigorating daily encounters with her test subject. Like clockwork, a day’s testing would conclude with a debriefing permeated with barely concealed mutual lust as well as some kind of sly physical contact initiated in equal measures by both parties: Gladys’s hand firmly gripping Chell’s muscled shoulder to get her attention, Chell imperceptibly running her calloused fingers along Gladys’s wrist as they passed each other at the door, et cetera, et cetera. Such things had become commonplace between them, as was the physical reaction awoken in the usually unflappable scientist._

_It was a wanting, an almost animalistic hunger that seemed to disregard just about every shred of sensibility Gladys had._

_Of course, the post-test debriefing would usually mark the end of their respective workdays, so Gladys was at liberty to pack her things, speed home, and… take care of things. To relieve the craving, at least for a little bit. Some days the need was so great that she wouldn’t even make it home, pulling into an abandoned farm road to satisfy the urge and avoid getting into an accident somewhere on the way back to the city._

_Such relief tends to be much harder to come by when sharing a room with twenty other women._

_Gladys was at her wit’s end, her body’s carnal urges second only in magnitude to the exhaustion that comes from being tremendously introverted in such living conditions._

_Running an Aperture Science Handheld Follicle Disentanglement Apparatus through her unwashed ivory hair (as she simply refused to shower with bare feet in the same stall as her numerous roommates), Gladys tried in vain to keep her mind from wandering. She had no idea where Chell was being housed during this particular lockdown, but reckoned that it was probably in some janitorial closet or abandoned storeroom, and far worse than her own scant accommodations; such was the continued attitude towards test subjects, which Chell never seemed to pay much mind to. Gladys realized with a start that she’d been combing the same lock of hair for several minutes._

_For a brief moment she marveled at how far she’d fallen from the detached and aloof persona she tried so hard to maintain._

_After trying unsuccessfully to smooth out the wrinkles in her three-day-old skirt, she took up her things from her cot and headed to the observation booth._

_Two other scientists were already there when she arrived, as the tests Gladys devised had grown far more complicated in response to Chell’s repeated success, but Gladys never let anyone forget that the ASHPD was_ her _project. Doug, the older of her two assistants, greeted her stiffly as she entered; the scraggly-haired man looked as greasy as Gladys felt and none too excited to be stuck in a small office for eight hours with the irritable snowy-haired scientist._

_“Dr. Blackmore is coming by with results from the Hard Light Bridge tests from yesterday,” he said, his eyes downcast. Gladys made a point of exhaling indignantly._

_“It had to be Susan. You deal with her when she comes, I'm not wasting my time.” Doug nodded and went back to his preparations. Gladys turned her attention to the other scientist, a panicky lab technician with curly red hair and an overbite. “O’Hare, get down to the chamber and make sure that creaky panel’s been fixed correctly this time.” The technician squeaked an acknowledgement and fled the room. Gladys took her seat behind the microphone and drew in some deep breaths, trying to simultaneously calm her raging headache and her raging hormones._

_“Begin the first test.” Chell entered the chamber, ASHPD in hand._

_So much for the ‘calm raging hormones’ plan._

_Not even a third of the way into the day, and Gladys was near the end of her rope. The redheaded technician was still gone after she’d discovered that the creaking panel was the result of a more widespread issue with the hydraulic system, leaving more work for Gladys and Doug to do in her absence. Gladys’s headache had only compounded, and it had long since become clear that Doug hadn’t used his standard issue Aperture Science Underarm Odor Elimination Gel that morning._

_And Chell continued to be her usual frustrating, stimulating, electrifying, overwhelming self._

_Throughout the tests, Chell would cast cheeky glances up to the cameras she knew Gladys would be watching from, making sure that any dynamic or dangerous move she executed was in full view. Doug’s job was more about data collection than it was direct observation, so Gladys knew that Chell knew that the show she was putting on was all for her._

_Damn her._

_Heat pooled in Gladys’s abdomen, the ache of her desire almost painful. Crossing her legs gave her no relief, and she was beginning to physically tire from the act of keeping her breathing steady and her mind focused._

_It was exhausting, and thrilling, and altogether too damn much of a turn on for Gladys to bear for much longer._

_“Doug.”_

_He looked up; it was rare for Gladys to call him anything other than ‘Rattmann’ or ‘lab boy’ or even just ‘hey, you’._

_“Go and… and find O’Hare. Tell her I want the hydraulics fixed in the next hour, or there’ll be hell to pay. I don’t care what you have to do, just get it done.” Doug stood and left, shoulders hunched and stifling a sigh; Gladys knew that such mechanical repairs were beyond his expertise and that he’d likely be no help to the timid technician._

_But at least Gladys was alone._

_Chell had been idling in the test chamber entrance while the room’s panels reluctantly creaked and groaned into the shape of the next chamber, an enormous room with high platforms and a huge chasm running through the middle._

_“You may proceed," Gladys said, slower and more deliberately than usual. Something in her voice clearly caught Chell’s attention, and she flashed a knowing smirk towards the cameras._

_Gladys was on the edge of her rolling chair, eyes fixed on every minute movement of Chell’s body as the test subject strolled into the chamber and glanced about her, analyzing the situation; satisfied with her battle plan, she swung the ASHPD to the ready and paused just briefly before springing into action._

_Looking deliberately into the nearest camera, Chell’s left hand twitched where it rested on the barrel of the gun. Gladys leaned in closer to the monitor, eyes fixed on Chell’s moving fingers._

_It had taken Chell quite a while to reveal her proficiency in sign language; between post-test debriefings and medical examinations, Chell liked to pay a minimal amount of attention when questions were asked of her, only nodding or shaking her head or maybe occasionally scrawling a short answer on a pad of paper if she felt so inclined. It was as Gladys watched Chell leave the building one day that she noticed a brief interaction between Chell and the doorman, whom Gladys knew to be hard of hearing; a quick flurry of hands between the two made it clear that this was not their first ‘conversation’._

_So, naturally, Gladys went home and became fluent in the sign language alphabet in one night, under the pretense of improving post-test communications between tester and test subject. She tempered her eagerness with the idea that limiting herself to only learning the alphabet would serve as a step back into the realm of stoicism and indomitability, a demonstration of the notion that Chell did_ not _in fact have a stranglehold on Gladys’s every waking thought (she did). Gladys surprised Chell the next day by signing the word ‘LUNATIC’ at her, one letter at a time. The way Chell’s eyes lit up in surprise and wry delight had fueled a whole week’s worth of evening stress relief sessions._

_Back in the test chamber, Chell surreptitiously signed the word ‘ENJOY’ against the barrel of the ASHPD and then burst into motion._

_The chamber was an exercise in high-speed midair spatial reorientation, and Chell took a running start off of the high platform and launched herself across the room, her lithe form twisting and spinning in mid-flight as she flew from portal to deftly placed portal._

_Gladys didn’t even realize she’d slid her hand down the front of her skirt until her lips parted in a moan._

_All coherent thought deserted Gladys as she doubled over in her chair, trembling all over and doing all she could to keep her eyes fixed on the monitor in front of her. Three days of denying herself the touch she so desperately wanted had left her entire body electrified, every nerve ending alive with want. Her fingers moved deftly against her center, against the crux of her desire, and within moments her vision was going white and her blood roaring in her ears as she watched Chell’s body arc gracefully over the chamber’s central chasm and land on her long fall boots with an earth-shaking impact._

_Chell looked up through windswept ebony hair into the camera, directly into Gladys’s eyes, and at the test subject’s knowing smirk the scientist was thrown over the edge, all glorious release and climactic cacophony and—_

_\--and the distinct feeling that she was being watched._

_Gladys’s hand flew out from under her skirt as she whirled around in her chair to see Dr. Susan Blackmore standing in the doorway of the booth, papers in hand and jaw on the floor._

_“Susan, wait—“_

_But she was gone, racing down the hallway in the direction of Cave Johnson’s office. Gladys lurched forward on still unsteady feet and made it only a few steps before collapsing to her knees in the doorway, ecstasy and relief giving way to dawning horror and devastation in the fraction of a second it took for Chell to stand and become curious about the odd silence that now pervaded the testing chamber._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey so uhhhh I graduated college and remembered this existed and figured I should probably finish it huh  
> anyway sorry for all the italics, this should be the last of the flashbacks lol


	5. Chapter 5

               Chell sat completely motionless as Gladys finished recounting the tale. She hadn’t been able to string more than a few words together at a time, and it had taken real concentration to figure out how to word things in ways that spared her reputation and self-image as much as possible. Interspersed between the fragmented and sputtered sentences had been long silence filled with hand-wringing and blush-hiding on Gladys’s part, but it seemed like Chell had gotten the gist of what had happened.

               Only now did Gladys realize how hard she was shivering, even in the infernal heat of the cramped elevator.

               Chell finally looked away, down to where one of her long fall boots lay scattered on the ground. She picked at the Aperture logo sticker where it was peeling on one side.

               Gladys felt more vulnerable in the piercing silence than she had ever before in her life. “Say something, damn you!” She yelled. Or, tried to yell. It came out more like a desperate whisper.

               Chell looked solemnly up at Gladys, and there was something in her eyes that Gladys had never seen before. Was it pity? Longing? Before she could figure it out, Chell was signing something.

               FUCK SUSAN

               Gladys snorted, an ugly sound that escaped her before she could stop herself. Clasping her hands over her mouth, she watched as Chell’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. Gladys felt another blush rise to her cheeks.

               “You’re—you think this is funny?!” Gladys pressed her back against the elevator wall, fists balled at her sides.

               Chell calmed down, wiping a tear from under her left eye. She gazed at Gladys, silver eyes sparkling in the dim light. Gladys’s breath hitched.

               FIRED FOR FRATERNIZATION?

               It took a while for Chell to spell out the last word; as soon as she realized what it would be, Gladys gave an indignant huff. “ _Yes_ , if you must put it in such boorish terms. I was removed from the whole portal project and relegated to _desk work_.” She grumbled something akin to _conflict of interest my ass_ as Chell continued to laugh. Gladys glowered, folding her arms and looking away even as her face flushed even more. She didn’t realize that Chell had begun signing something else until the test subject snapped her fingers at Gladys to get her attention.

               I THOUGHT

               Chell’s hand stopped, hesitating in midair, her laughter having died away and her expression soft.

               I DID BAD

               Gladys smirked. “Don’t tell me you felt _guilty_ ,” she teased. “Oh, that’s hilarious.” Now it was Chell’s turn to fold her arms and frown. “Don’t look at me like that! It’s not like I could have told you what happened. They’ve all but put a restraining order on me.” She drew absentminded patterns with her index finger on her dusty skirt as her voice quieted. “Besides, I’m the one who screwed it all up. I let my _feelings_ get in the way of my work, and I miscalculated. You shouldn’t feel guilty. Though the thought of you being wracked with guilt is utterly delightful, I must admit.”

               Something in Chell’s expression had shifted as Gladys spoke, and she signed more quickly than she had before.

               FEELINGS?

               Gladys rolled her eyes, all hopes of maintaining her visage of unflappability dashed. “Yes, you idiot. _Feelings_. I trust you’re familiar with the concept? Don’t tell me you’re too thick to realize the mutual flirting that’s been going on for months. Or even today, while we’ve been stuck in this godforsaken metal box.”

               YOU MEAN YOU STILL

               Chell had risen to her knees, silvery eyes fixed on Gladys’s golden ones. Gladys involuntarily took a deep, shuddering breath.

               “Still what.” It was barely more than a whisper.

               Chell moved forward, dragging orange-clad knees across the elevator floor. Gladys felt the breath leave her as Chell’s approaching body heat brought up the temperature of the air around her even more.

               WANT ME?

               Chell’s face was an inch from Gladys’s, her right hand hovering by Gladys’s left cheekbone, index finger curved wryly in the sign of the question mark. Breaths were exchanged in the sweltering air as each woman glanced at the other’s lips. Gladys was acutely aware of the way her back was arching towards Chell of its own volition, of the way she could feel Chell’s finger on her cheek even though it still drifted an inch away from her skin. Of the way desire arced through her body, radiating out from her center. Of the way Chell’s equally unsteady breath felt against her lips.

               For a fleeting moment, the part of Gladys’s psyche that reveled in denying satisfaction screamed at her to pull back, to chastise Chell for her boldness and relish in making Chell suffer. And in making herself suffer.

               That moment passed quickly.

               “Yes, you _monster_.”

               The two women came together in a tangle of lips and limbs, grasping and gripping each other wherever their hands could find purchase. Hands swarmed over shoulders and abdomens and thighs and faces and fingers tangled in hair and lab coats and tank tops, neither one able to pull the other close enough. The first clumsy crash of lips and teeth quickly gave way to deep, fervid kisses permeated with helpless whimpers and gasps for air. Chell was everywhere, hot skin and crushing weight and calloused fingers tracing lines on the skin near the waistband of her skirt.

               Gladys let out a guttural moan as Chell’s lips roamed over her face and down her neck, her perfectly manicured fingernails slipping underneath Chell’s tank top and raking over her densely muscled back. She felt herself sliding down the wall of the elevator, but Chell was there to slip one arm around the small of her back, tangling the fingers of her other hand in Gladys’s alabaster hair. Her back arched again as Chell greedily nipped and tongued at the tender skin of her throat, the stalwart scientist keenly aware and _extremely_ turned on by the sensation of Chell’s teeth along her jugular vein. Her body was wracked with tremors, and she could feel Chell smile into her skin in response.

               Gladys had envisioned this moment more times than she could count, late at night in her apartment with her fingers under her nightgown and in the middle of department meetings while other simpletons prattled on about inferior experiments. However, her daydreams tended to involve many more scenarios of the shoving-Chell-up-against-a-wall-and-disproving-her-muteness-by-making-her-scream-Gladys’s-name type. She hadn’t envisioned it happening on the grubby floor of an Aperture Science Vertical People Mover, and she hadn’t pictured herself unabashedly mewling with pleasure at Chell’s every touch like a virgin schoolgirl.

               She _certainly_ hadn’t predicted the alacrity with which Chell would go for the clasp on her skirt, fumbling with impatient fingers in the dark.

               Gladys made a noise of indignation and swatted Chell’s hand away, throwing the darker-skinned woman off balance; with a startled _whuff_ of air Chell was knocked onto her back. Gladys climbed astride Chell’s torso as gracefully as she could manage, reveling in Chell’s expression of surprise and wry titillation.

               “Not so fast, _Test Subject One._ You don’t get off on ruining my life _that_ easily.” Gladys ran slender, dexterous fingers over Chell’s firm abdomen, sliding underneath her stained Aperture tank top. With another terse command and a wriggle on Chell’s part the garment was lifted over her head and shoulders and cast aside, and Gladys sat back to admire the view.

               She was, as someone with far less refinement than Gladys might surmise, _fucking ripped._

               Gladys immediately set to work exploring Chell’s body with her hands, traversing hills and valleys between abdomen muscles and tracing the scars that littered her bronze skin. Chell closed her eyes, face upturned and chest heaving with trembling breaths, her body glistening with sweat in the faint light. But what _really_ caught Gladys’s attention was the way that Chell’s entire body quivered when Gladys ran her nails down Chell’s midsection with just enough pressure to leave scratches behind. With a wicked grin, Gladys repeated the motion, leaving Chell writing with pleasure beneath her.

               Filing this discovery away in her mind for future use, Gladys turned her attention to Chell’s black sports bra. Running her hands deftly underneath the elastic, Gladys bent her head and ran her teeth along Chell’s collarbone, tasting salt and sweat and something else that could only be described as uniquely _Chell_. Her hands found their way under the stubborn sports bra, kneading and massaging and working their way to the sensitive tips; with each graze of her thumb and squeeze of her fingers, Chell’s wheezing grew more erratic, and she arched her back more and more into Gladys’s willing hands.

               Digging her teeth into the thin skin and Chell’s left collarbone, she kept one hand working underneath Chell’s bra, while the nails of her other hand scored their way down Chell’s stomach towards the spot that needed her most.

               The pool of heat and wetness that greeted her as her hand slipped past the waistbands of Chell’s jumpsuit pants and underwear sent a thrill through Gladys’s body, amplifying her own arousal. She hummed with pleasure against Chell’s neck, biting and sucking at the delicate flesh there as Chell ran her hands over whatever parts of Gladys she could reach.

               As her fingers moved deftly over Chell’s slick heat, Gladys found herself experiencing a new and unexpected pleasure—the very act of watching someone who very likely had the capacity to moan try their very hardest to stay silent was a perk that Gladys hadn’t anticipated. Watching Chell bite down on her own clenched fingers and sink the short nails of her other hand into Gladys’s forearm was an utterly intoxicating experience, and Gladys found herself gasping alongside Chell as her ministrations became more rapid, her thumb rubbing fast circles over Chell’s most sensitive point while the rhythm of her index and middle fingers sinking deep into Chell’s body became more and more urgent. Gladys was trembling now as well as Chell, and the latter pulled Gladys’s head down to hers to capture her mouth in another kiss. Realizing that this was another way for Chell to inhibit herself from making noise, Gladys grinned wickedly into the kiss and sucked on Chell’s lower lip as the younger woman’s head lolled back in throngs of ecstasy.

               Then Chell’s whole body was wracked with spasms, her inner walls clenching tightly around Gladys’s fingers. Chell’s back arched off of the floor and she let out a strangled, guttural noise, not quite a vocalization but close enough for Gladys to feel satisfied as she slowed the rhythm of her fingers and eventually removed them from Chell’s pants, trailing a damp path up her still heaving abdomen. Chell rested her head against the floor, glistening with sweat from the heat of the elevator as well as the physical exertion.

               “Pity,” Gladys mused, studying her wet fingers. “I was hoping for slightly more… _vocal_ feedback.” Her amber eyes flashed with mischief. “Of course, I’m not one to give up on good science. We’ll just have to continue testing.”

               Chell propped herself up on her elbows, still breathing heavily, meeting Gladys’s impish smirk with a look of roguish determination. In a flash she was up on her knees, running strong fingers under the older woman’s jaw and angling Gladys’s face up to meet hers. Though she did her best not to show it on her face, something in Chell’s devilish silver gaze rendered her breathless again. Slowly, Chell brought Gladys’s hand up to her mouth, running her tongue along sharp-tasting, pruny fingers. Overwhelmed by the sensation, Gladys allowed herself to be moved so that her back was against the elevator wall, where Chell sought out Gladys’s lips with her own and kissed her, achingly slowly. Gladys found herself rebuked whenever she tried to deepen the kiss or move her hands over Chell’s body, and she growled in frustration.

               Chell broke the kiss and pressed Gladys’s hands against the wall.

               MY TURN

               As she signed this, Gladys felt every nerve in her body come alive with need. Reluctantly keeping her hands off of Chell’s body and against the cool surface of the metal wall, she felt her skin break out in goosebumps as Chell dipped her head and ran a line of light kisses over Gladys’s jawline. Tipping her head back to allow Chell easier access, Gladys’s eyes drifted closed as Chell nibbled on Gladys’s left earlobe before trailing her lips down Gladys’s neck.

               Gladys was suddenly aware of a tugging at her chest, and realized that Chell was grappling with the buttons of her blouse; the soft grey fabric of the blouse fell open in a few more seconds and hands were replaced with lips as Chell nipped and sucked at the tender skin hard enough to leave marks. She ran her fingertips along the lace of Gladys’s bra, unhooking it at the back and seeking out the already rigid points of Gladys’s nipples with her hands and tongue.

               Anticipating where the subject was headed, it was Gladys who went for the clasp on her own skirt, fingers numb and clumsy with need; again Chell stopped her, pressing the older woman’s hands to the floor and kissing her way down Gladys’s stomach, stopping to dip her tongue into her navel before continuing down to the waistband of her skirt and deftly undoing the clasp. Gladys allowed Chell to slide the skirt off of her as well as her ebony stockings, the elevator floor shockingly cool against her bare skin.

               Gladys’s vision was swimming as Chell stopped to admire her skimpy black lace underwear, toying with and removing them tantalizingly slowly. Lying on her stomach and resting on her elbows between Gladys’s legs, Chell glanced up at Gladys’s noise of frustration. With one finger Chell began drawing lazy circles against the skin of Gladys’s inner thigh. With her other hand, she signed letters that Gladys struggled to translate under the thick haze of her desire.

               SHALL I?

               “If you don’t,” Gladys gasped, “I may have to murder you.” Chell gave her an exaggeratedly offended look, furrowing her brow and waggling one finger in a scolding motion. Gladys’s heady lust became fueled even more by desperation.

               BE NICE

               “Chell.” The younger woman’s chiding expression fell away as the two women made eye contact. “Yes. Please.”

               And then Chell was there and everywhere, face buried in Gladys’s wetness, tongue circling feverishly around Gladys’s clit while fingers explored and entered her, probing and curling to reach Gladys’s very core. She writhed and gasped, moaning desperately and tangling her fingers in Chell’s hair. Even as fireworks went off in her vision and her heartbeat pounded in her ears Gladys struggled to believe that this was happening; she had imagined it so many times that for a split second she feared her own orgasm, thinking that she’d come back to reality and be lying in her bed, alone, her own fingers inside her, calling out Chell’s name into a dark, empty room.

               And then Chell reached out with her free hand and grabbed Gladys’s hand, twining their fingers together as she increased the speed of her mouth and fingers against Gladys’s center. Gladys cried out once, twice, three times, Chell’s name echoing off of the metal walls as Gladys’s world became rapture, as she came utterly undone hundreds of feet below the Earth’s surface at the touch of a mute test subject.

               Chell rose to her knees, panting, and each woman cupped the other’s face in their hands simply breathed, hair matted to foreheads and faces slick with sweat. Gladys slowly began to catch her breath and kissed Chell again, languidly, deliberately, savoring every moment.

               Finally, Chell broke the silence. Sort of.

               YOU OKAY?

               In a flash the ill-tempered scientist was back, casting a scornful glance Chell’s way. “Am I _okay_? Don’t insult me. I may be your senior but I’m not _that_ old.” Chell quirked an eyebrow, giggling silently and rolling her eyes. “And don’t roll your eyes at me! You’re still in trouble for getting me fired.”  
               Chell tried to silence her with kisses to her cheeks and eyelids, all the while Gladys was still admonishing her. “And don’t get me started on that whole _be nice_ thing. You thought you were being so clever, didn’t you? Well, I won’t stand for it. I used to be your boss, you know.”

               Chell waved a hand in dismissal, though she gazed tentatively at Gladys. With a naughty leer, Gladys hooked one finger under the strap of Chell’s sports bra. “I suppose next time I’ll have to impose some sort of punishment for insubordination.”

               Chell didn’t miss a beat. NEXT TIME?

               “Of course. Any scientist worth her salt knows that a good experiment involves multiple trials. Standard deviation and all that.” She drew a faint line with her fingernail against the bare skin of Chell’s shoulder. “Perhaps something involving _single-blindedness_ to avoid test subject bias.” Chell gave her a half-grin, silver eyes twinkling with exhilaration.

               _Boom._

               Chell’s eyes widened and Gladys let out a string of expletives as the elevator around them began to whirr and whine; the two flew apart as the bright fluorescent lights flickered back on, Chell scrambling for her discarded tank top and Gladys tearing a long run in her stockings as she yanked them back on. Gladys tugged up her skirt as Chell reached over her and tried to help with her blouse buttons.

               “Wh—get off me, you idiot, you’ve started one button off—“

               Thirty seconds later, both women were standing fully clothed and on opposite sides of the elevator as it groaned under the effort of starting up again; slowly but surely it began its descent to the next floor as Chell frantically wiped lipstick from her cheeks and chin and Gladys adjusted her blouse’s collar to cover an emerging hickey. At the very last second, Gladys shoved something into Chell’s hand, which the latter stuffed into her jumpsuit pants pocket.

               The doors flew open, blasting the both of them with a wave of gloriously cool, filtered air. A small crowd of people had gathered to greet them, and there was a brief second of shocked silence as Gladys emerged with Chell, blinking in the harsh light. A scrawny mechanic with a toolbox rushed forward.

               “Hey, are you guys okay? Sorry that took so long—oh _shit_ , Gladys—“

               In the second it took for Chell to become worried about the looks they were getting from some members of the crowd, Gladys was off, doing what she did best. She was absolutely fuming, an indomitable wave of pure and utter seething malice. “And just what kind of idiot are you, _Daggett_ , to sit idly by and let me be stuck in that godforsaken elevator for so goddamn long? And with a fucking _test subject?_ ”

Daggett cowered behind his toolbox as the crowd began to disperse, nobody eager to be the next one on the receiving end of such vicious ire. “Cave Johnson will _hear about this_ , Daggett, and I swear there will be _hell to pay.”_ She hauled Daggett off in the direction of the mechanical engineers’ office to speak to his supervisor as he sputtered out apologies and excuses, and soon Chell was left along in front of the elevator.

               “Uh, hey! Over here, uh Ms. Test Subject.” Chell glanced to her right and saw a mousey-haired figure poking his head out from where he cowered behind a potted plant. “Uh, you must be dehydrated, probably, yeah? Here.” He scampered over and held out an Aperture Science Dihydrogen Monoxide Containment Unit.

               “They gave me this to give to Ms. Gladys, but she sees, er, fine! Or at least, normal levels of _really supremely angry._ So I guess you can have this one.”

               She recognized him, vaguely—his nametag said _Wheatley_ , and she’d seen him mopping floors and emptying garbage bins a few times around the facility. Well, usually she’d seen him trying and failing to do those things, more often than not ending up with a bigger mess than when he’d started.

               She took the water bottle from him and took huge gulps from it as Wheatley explained, clumsily, that the attack on Aperture by Black Mesa was over and that the employees were dismissed until the damages could be repaired. “Although, maybe this time y’might want to use the stairs, eh?”

               Chell nodded her thanks to the bumbling boy and headed for the stairwell. As the door closed behind her she paused in the middle of the staircase and reached for the thing in her pocket. It was a scrap of paper, torn from one of Gladys’s reports.

               It had an address on it, and a time.

               Chell grinned to herself, stuffed the paper back in her pocket, and continued up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god it's finally done
> 
> anyway, now that they've kissed and made up, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all of the kind comments and support even though this took... a while... to finish. It's actually been really interesting to come back to this at a completely different place in my life than when I started it. What started as a dumb one-shot idea turned into a whole big thing, and maybe someday in a million years I'll write about their next date at Gladys's place. Maybe.
> 
> thank you all for everything <3


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